THE OYSTER. 185 



This method does not give the actual number of 

 oysters upon the bottom, for the dredge does not 

 always sweep clean, and it is necessary to pass over 

 the ground several times to thoroughly exhaust it, 

 but results obtained in this way give the relative con- 

 dition of the bed with great accuracy. 



Whenever the contents of the dredge showed that we 

 were off the bed, or near its limits, the haul was not 

 counted, and the results therefore show the number of 

 oysters upon the beds; not the number per yard over 

 the whole bay. 



Fifty-nine beds were examined in this way, and the 

 results are given in the accompanying table, which 

 shows that forty-four of these beds are below Wins- 

 low's average, and fifteen above it. Upon one of these 

 beds, in Hooper's Strait, we found 8.2 oysters to the 

 square yard, and we here obtained 4000 oysters in six 

 hauls. These oysters were all very small, averaging 

 four hundred to the bushel, and we probably struck 

 an area where there had been a good catch of spat a 

 year or two before, but where there were no large 

 oysters. At any rate, this condition is exceptional, 

 and I have therefore omitted the dredgings in Hooper's 

 Strait in the average for the bay. Leaving this out, 

 the average for the other fifty-eight beds gives .235 

 oysters to the square yard, or one oyster to each 

 4^ 3 ff yards, while three years before there was one 

 oyster to each 2ffifc square yards. 



Startling as this result is, it is by no means the 

 whole truth. We must remember that in 1879 Tan- 

 14 



